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Program Outline
Overview of Best Interests Case Practice Model
(BICPM)
The BICPM Summary Guide
Strategies for leading the integration of
the BICPM into your workplace
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Introductory Activity
What have you had to leave behind
to come to this training?
Why did you nominate for
this role?
What questions do you have about the Best Interests Case Practice Model and promoting its use among your staff?
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The Best Interests Framework
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How it all fits…
The Children, Youth and Families
Act 2005
The Best Interests Framework
Best Interests Conceptual Overview
Cumulative
Harm Conceptual Overview
Best Interests Case Practice Model
Resource Guide Summary Guide
(under development)
Trauma and Development Guide Specialist Practice Guides
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Learning and Development Strategy
Phase 1 – Preparing for
Enactment
Phase 2 – Embedding Reforms
Phase 3 – Ensuring Lasting
Cultural
Change
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What we do and How we do it
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Key Message
We can only do the
“What” we do effectively if we attend to “How”
we do it
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Key Message
The Best Interests Case Practice Model
is a process and a way of thinking.
It is not an event.
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What is it not?
A checklist
A tool to be
“done”
A prescriptive document
A manualised treatment model
An additional “task” to
be added to people’s workload
All “new” concepts
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Trauma and Development
The parents of the children
we work with are often impacted by trauma themselves.
“Remain
compassionate to the distress that children and families experience and mindful that anger and resistance usually reflect the hurt and overwhelm that lies beneath” (Summary Guide p.15)
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How trauma and deprivation can impact on parenting:
Inability
to regulate own emotions
Never learning what healthy parenting
looks and feels like.
Not knowing what to expect for healthy development
Dissociative states
Misinterpreting child’s normal behavioural and developmental responses as an attack.
Projecting image of perpetrator on to the child.
Maladaptive survival strategies, such as substance abuse.
Fear of child’s anger
Currently in fear or traumatisation.
Living in a state of chaos and crisis that crowds out anything other than survival
(Annette Jackson, Take Two/Berry Street)
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Information-Gathering
“Any risk or safety assessment or future
casework is only as good as the quality of
information on which it is based”
BICPM Summary Guide
p.17
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Tools for Information-Gathering: How we do it
Genograms
Eco-maps
Timelines
Assist in
drawing out the family’s story
Assist practitioners to think and
act systemically
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Analysis
The BICPM is based on a professional
judgement model – analysis supports workers to make considered
judgements and to be able to clearly articulate the rationale behind these judgements.
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Professional judgement
“It is important that practitioners are
aware of the problems associated with professional judgement. These
problems include a lack of recognition of known risk factors, the predominance of verbal evidence over written, a focus on the immediate present or latest episode rather than considering significant historical information, and a failure to revise initial assessments in the light of new information”.
(Munro 1999)
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Resource
Key reference:
“Effective Child Protection Practice”
(Eileen Munro, 2002)
- relevant to all who work
with vulnerable children and families, not just Child Protection practitioners.
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Analysis
“Research and experience has shown that there
is usually lots of information available about the child
and family, however reviews of practice often find that there was insufficient shared analysis to form a good plan”
Summary Guide p. 9
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Analysis – Risk Assessment
The BICPM should not be
viewed by practitioners only as a risk assessment tool
– it is a framework for practice.
The BICPM asks us to carefully analyse the information we have, taking into consideration historical, systemic and ecological factors, to inform our risk and needs assessment, as well as our planning, actions and review.
Key message: The BICPM does not become redundant once you have done your risk assessment.
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Definitions
Harm/Cumulative Harm
Impact
Vulnerability
Sustainability
Culture
Activity: define these terms
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Harm - Considerations
What has happened or
is likely to happen to the child?
Distinguish between harm
and harm-causing behaviour
Describe the evidence of harm i.e. injuries, behaviours which indicate harm, developmental delay that has been assessed by a medical professional as non-organic, high-risk adolescent behaviours etc.
Harm = acts of omission and commission
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Cumulative harm
Child’s unmet needs = harm to
development over time
‘Research evidence has shown that a
child can be as severely harmed by the cumulative impact of less severe risk factors e.g. neglect and family violence, as by a single, severe episode of harm’
Summary guide page 8
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Impact - Considerations
What effect has the harm had
on the child’s safety, stability and development?
How severe do
you judge this impact to be?
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Vulnerability - Considerations
Considering the child’s age, stage, culture
and gender, how do these factors increase/decrease this particular
child’s vulnerability to further harm?
Does the child’s particular temperament/personality impact on their vulnerability to further harm?
Does the child have a physical/intellectual disability that adds to their vulnerability to further harm?
Are there socio-economic factors that make this child more/less vulnerable to further harm?
Do family patterns indicate increased vulnerability to the child?
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Sustainability - Considerations
Where strengths and/or protections have been
identified, how do we assess the likelihood that they
can be sustained over time?
Strengths should not be confused with safety
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Culture - Considerations
Culture is a broadly-defined concept that
encompasses a child’s core identity, the meaning of that
identity to that child and their family, and the wraparound scaffolding that maintains that cultural identity i.e. family/cultural connectedness (extended family, community), family rituals and customs, stories and music etc.
Key message: Culture is not a “Yes/No” question to be ticked off!!
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Articulating Your Analysis
“Practitioners need to be able
to present evidence to the Children’s Court that shows
the effects of harm…and future risks to children’s safety, stability and development. The Court will also want to know the rationale for professional judgements and decision-making, what assistance has been provided to the family and the outcomes of previous interventions, all supported by evidence.”
Summary Guide p.4
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Activity – Articulating Analysis
Harm and impact – what
is going well/not well for Jake and what are
your thoughts about the reasons for these?
Pattern and history (constraints/strengths)
Beliefs and relationships (constraints/strengths)
Current environment (complicating factors, system/service factors) – (constraints/strengths)
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Key Message
Any plans and recommendations that we
develop must clearly and logically flow from our analysis.
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Action
“Any action should be based on sound analysis
and be purposeful towards engaging the family members in
a change process”
Summary Guide p.38
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Action
Engagement of the family in an action plan
is fundamental to its success
True engagement is when
the family signs on to a common agenda for change.
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Engagement
“Possibly the strongest indicator of engagement is
when you feel you can talk about change without
fear of jeopardising the relationship”
(The Bouverie Centre 2006)
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Family Group Conferencing and Aboriginal Family Decision Making
AFDM
and FGC give a strong message of partnership and
empowerment to the family.
AFDM is culturally appropriate
AFDM/FGC convenors exist in DHS in each region
We must give greater consideration to engaging absent fathers and their families
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Implications for Practice - Children
“Effective therapeutic and enrichment
interventions must recruit other adults in a child’s life
– caregivers, teachers, parents – to be involved in learning and delivering elements of these interventions, in addition to the specific therapy hours dedicated to them during the week.” (Perry, 2005, 38)
www.childtrauma.org
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Key Message
“Where there is harm, referral to
another service will not ensure that the family will
engage or that change will occur. There needs to be active casework to ensure that the family engages with the service in a meaningful way.”
(Summary Guide p.29)
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Review
“Review is the continual process of being
curious about our effectiveness”
Summary Guide p.45
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Review
“Review information frequently. Identify gaps. Be open
to changing your initial views rather than interpreting new
information in a way that supports a pre-existing opinion of a child or family”
BICPM Summary Guide p.17
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Spot the difference
1. “The child is at risk
due to exposure to parental substance abuse, the parent
has refused to access a treatment service and has not complied with Child Protection’s investigation. This child needs a safe and stable environment where her physical and emotional needs are met.”
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Spot the difference
2. “The child’s physical safety is
at risk as the parent’s substance use occurs when
the parent is the sole supervisor of the child. The child displays evidence of harm to her development in her delayed speech, her untreated eczema and her significant weight loss over the past month”
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The model is
relationship based, child focussed, family
centred
ecological and systemic
culturally competent
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The model is (cont)
developmentally and trauma informed
gender aware
and analytical
dynamic and responsive
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The model is (cont)
based on professional judgement
strengths based
outcomes
focussed
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Reflective Practice
The BICPM requires reflective practice:
“In
Victoria there is a strong commitment to strengthening a
culture of reflective practice so that the best interests of children are achieved” (p.49)
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Forums for Reflective Practice
Supervision
Case conferences
Peer supervision
Team meetings
Individual reflection
Reflective Practice prompts are in the Summary Guide (p.49)
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Activity: Where to from here?
What are we doing
well?
Where do we need to further develop in terms
of Best Interests?
What strategies can I use to promote Best Interests:
Within my team
Within my organisation
Across services in my local area
Across my region
What networks/resources do I know of that can be a part of this strategy?
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Where to from here?
Possible obstacles
to embedding the Best Interests Case Practice Model?
Crisis driven;
dealing with the urgent, neglecting the important
We’re too busy
I already act in children’s Best Interests, always have.
Workplace culture
Hierarchy
CRIS compatibility
CSO Registration process
Resources
Recruitment and retention
What can we as “champions” do to address these?
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Program Outline
Overview of Best Interests Case Practice Model
(BICPM)
The BICPM Summary Guide
Strategies for leading the integration of
the BICPM into your workplace
Слайд 66
Resources
every child every chance documents on website:
The Best Interests Framework
The Best Interests Principles
– Conceptual Overview
Child Development and Trauma Guide
Cumulative harm – Conceptual Overview
Stability – Guidance Paper
Strategic Framework for Family Services
Fact Sheets
Reference list at back of Summary Guide
Child Protection Practice Manual
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Resources –Specialist Practice Guides
By end 2008
Working with vulnerable
infants
Young people 10-14 years with problematic sexualised behaviours
Children under
10 years with problematic sexualised behaviours
Engaging parents: assessing and enhancing parenting capability/capacity
Working with young people
Working with families in which someone is abusive
By mid 2009
Stability – child and family
Stability in long term out of home care
Stability and issues associated with reunification
Cumulative Harm